when we address ourselves to Heaven; and therefore, secondly, to pray in faith is, in the scripture sense of it, to pray in the name of Christ; that is, in the faith that it is through his merits and mediation only we can find acceptance with God. We acknowledge our guilt; we disclaim all trust in our own righteousness; and implore grace from God on account of what his Son has done and suffered for us. This is the clear and express doctrine of the New Testament. We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We have this new and living way which he hath consecrated for us within the veil. Having this High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.* HAVING thus pointed out the chief and most essential qualifications of prayer, it remains that I lay some considerations before you, to show the importance and advantages of it. IN the first place Prayer is one of the most powerful means of recalling our minds from the vanities of life to serious thoughts; to a proper sense of God, and our duty; and to all the high objects with which we are intimately connected as rational and immortal beings. Surrounded, as we are, with the objects and pleasures of the world; busied with its avocations, and continually immersed in its pursuits, man would become altogether the victim of sense, and a prey to its temptations, if there were not some stated occasions which brought him home to himself, and to the thoughts of another world. Prayer has a much more impressive effect for this purpose, than can be expected from simple meditation. An immediate and solemn address to an omniscient Being, in whose presence we consider ourselves as then particularly sisted, tends to produce a higher degree of serious and awful recollection, than would arise from a mere soliloquy of the mind with itself. In prayer, the soul approaches to the borders of an invisible world, and acts as a spirit holding intercourse with the Father of spirits. It drops for a time the remembrance of its earthly connections, to dwell among everlasting objects. Prayer, by this means, both composes and purifies the heart; it gives the soul its proper elevation towards God, and has a happy effect to counterwork the dangerous impressions made by the corruptions of the world around us. In the next place, Prayer is useful, not only as a corrective of our natural levity and forgetfulness of God, but as an actual exercise of the best affections of our nature, which are thereby confirmed and strengthened. As far as prayer is not a mere emission of empty words, but speaks as it ought to do, the language of the heart, it is an assemblage of all the affections which. constitute piety. It implies the highest sentiments of reverence and adoration of love and gratitude to God, of trust in his mercy, and of faith in our blessed Redeemer, all animating the heart. Whatever nourishes such affections as these in the soul, gives strength and support at the same time to active virtue; and thereby prepares and assists us for every duty of life.With respect to ourselves, the view which prayer gives, of our necessities and wants, of our sins and offences against God, and of the dangers which we have thereby incurred, produces becoming humility of mind. Prostrate before that Great Being whom we have so much offended, all the pride of man is laid in the dust. He is impressed with a sense of what he truly is, and taught how far removed from what he ought to be. By the prayers he puts up for being assisted to repent of past follies, and to make improvements for the future in virtue, the desire of virtue is cherished, and the pursuit of it excited; and if this desire after virtue which is expressed in prayer be genuine, it is a degree of goodness already in some measure begun within the heart.Prayer is, at the same time, an exercise of benevolence towards men as well as of piety towards God; when, as was before observed, not merely as individuals, but as members of the great family of God, we come before our heavenly Father, and express our affectionate wishes for all our brethren.- -While prayer in this manner gives exertion to many of the highest parts of goodness, it is attended moreover with this great advantage, that it tends to fortify the worshipper in the practice of all his duties. For it impresses him with a sense of God as the great friend and protector of righteousness in the world; to whom, therefore, all righteous men may look up with confidence and hope; whose strength is more than sufficient for their weakness whose gracious aid none that served him ever implored in vain. In the last place, Prayer is important, not only as a means of high improvement in religion, but as an instrument of consolation and relief under the distresses of life. How many situations are found in the world, where men have no resource left to them but prayer to God! How forlorn would the persecuted and afflicted, the sad and the sorrowful be, if even this last sanctuary were shut against them; if they had no Protector in Heaven to whom they could look up in the hours of anguish !--We all know what a relief it is to be able to unbosom our griefs to some friend whom we believe compassionate and kind, even though it be not in his power to give us any effectual aid. In our Heavenly Father we can look up not only to one in whom compassions flow, who knows our frame, remembers we are dust, and pities us as a father pitieth his children; but to One whose arm is allpowerful, either to support us under our distress, or, if to his wisdom it seem meet, to relieve us altogether from it. Hence, Prayer is so often the last retreat of the miserable. Where men can give them no aid, God is their present help. To him they can pour forth those secret griefs, which to men they sometimes cannot disclose. He hears these groans of the labouring heart, which no words can utter; and circumstances which would expose our requests to be despised by the world, prevent not our prayers from finding acceptance with God. It is his character to hear the cry of the poor, and to regard the prayer of the destitute: He is the helper of them who have no help of man.Hence, prayer may be termed the Temple of Tranquillity to the unhappy where their minds are soothed, and their cares and sorrows are, for a time, hushed and forgotten. It may justly be said, that there only, on this side of the grave, the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are are at rest. There, the prisoners rest together; they hear no more the voice of the oppressor.The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his master.* : THE reasonableness of prayer as a duty, and the advantages attending it, being such as I have now endeavoured briefly to set forth, there is no wonder that so many repeated recommendations of it occur in the Sacred Writings; and that we are enjoined to be fervent in prayer, to be instant in prayer, nay, to pray without ceasing.t-By such precepts I do not understand that we are bound to frequent repetitions of long and tedious prayers. Our Saviour, in his excellent discourse on this subject has sufficiently cautioned us against the hypocrisy of those who use vain repetitions, and think that they shall be heard from their much speaking. But besides the stated times of both public and private prayer, which we ought devoutly to observe, there is a habit of devotion, in occasional elevations of the soul towards God, which highly deserves to be cultivated. A thousand occurrences which happen when we are engaged in the affairs of the world, and a thousand objects which present themselves to our view in the earth and the heavens when we are solitary and alone, may suggest matter of devout ejaculation towards God. By cherishing such a habit, we preserve on our minds the native spirit of prayer. We correct those evil dispositions which intercourse with the world is always apt to introduce; we improve our contemplation of the objects which surround, us into an act of devotion; and either from the crowded city, or the solitary field, can send up to heaven that homage of the heart, which is no less acceptable to the Almighty, than if it arose in vocal form from the midst of the temple. In this sense I understand the injunction given to pray without ceasing.-And surely, my brethren, when we consider the high value of those blessings for which we depend on Heaven, it must appear to every reflecting mind, that * Job, iii. 17-19. 1 Thess. v. 17. + Matth. vi. we cannot be too earnest in our supplications to obtain them. To what purpose tend all our present solicitude and care; all the application of the thoughtful, and all the industry of the active and diligent? Is it not in order to pass through life, contented, easy, and happy? But can you pass through life with contentment and happiness, unless you enjoy peace within, a good conscience, and a comfortable hope of a future existence? Are not all these things directly and immediately the gifts of God, imparted by him to the souls of men? And can you expect to receive such gifts, unless you confess your dependence on Him who bestows them, and implore them from that gracious God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not? SERMON XCI. ON THE LAST JUDGMENT. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.-2 CORINTHIANS, v. 10. THESE words present to our view the great event which is to determine the fate of all mankind. No article of christian faith is more clearly ascertained in Scripture, is of greater importance in itself, and more worthy to dwell upon our minds than this, of the final judgment of God. It adds solemnity to every part of religion; it introduces an awful seriousness into our thoughts, by placing in the most striking light, the close connection between our present behaviour and our everlasting happiness or misery. In the Gospel it is described with so many circumstances of awe and terror, as may, to many, render the consideration of this subject dark and disagreeable. But we must remember, that though religion be often employed to sooth and comfort the distressed, and though this be one of its most salutary effects, yet this is not the only purpose to which it is to be applied by Ministers of the Gospel. In the midst of that levity and dissipation with which the world abounds, it is necessary to awaken the giddy and unthinking, by setting before them, in full, view, all the dangers they incur by their conduct. -Knowing the terror of the Lord, adds the Apostle, in the verse immediately following the text, we persuade men.-In treating of this subject, I shall, in the first place, state the arguments which reason affords for the belief of a judgment to come; and shall next shew the improvements which we ought to make of the particular discoveries the Gospel hath made to us concerning it. |
